Florida International star infielder Garrett Wittels and a group of friends were arrested in the Bahamas last week and charged with the rape of two 17-year-old American girls. Wittels and his friends met the two girls on Dec. 20 at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in Paradise Island. They were released Thursday on $10,000 bond.

Wittels, a junior infielder, is slated to enter the 2011 season riding a 56-game hitting streak, the second-longest in Division I history. He is two games shy of Robin Ventura's record 58-game streak, set in 1987.

Wittels' father, Michael Wittels, told the Miami Herald that his son will be vindicated when all the facts come to light.

"Anyone can accuse anyone of anything at any time," Michael Wittels told the paper. "He's not doing well, obviously. He's blown away. He's devastated that someone would accuse him of this."

The two girls, whom the Herald reports passed themselves off as students at the University of Arkansas, followed Wittels and his friends to a private party. Their age is not an issue in the case, because the age of sexual consent in the Bahamas is 16.

"The next morning, they found out who (Wittels) was, and that was the road they took," Michael Wittels told the Herald. "He hasn't been found guilty of anything. I hope (the media) doesn't hang him for merely an allegation. That's all this is."